Bathing appliance



Dec. 8, 1964 w. D. HULL BATHING APPLIANCE Filed June 20, 1962 INVENTOR.

W/u/AM D. HULL BY W k a M United States Patent 3,160,523 BATHING APPLIANCE William D. Hull, 1714 Courtland, Park Ridge, Ill. Filed June 20, 1962, Ser. No. 263,909 2 Claims. (Cl. 11876) This invention relates to bathing appliances and more particularly to an appliance of the type including a bar of soap provided with handle forming means whereby application of the soap to the less accessible parts of the body is facilitated.

Bars or cakes attached to strings of various sorts are known; however, ditficulty may be experienced with such prior appliances in the application of the soap to the back and other less accessible parts of the body. Although it has heretofore been proposed to provide a bar of soap with short finger grips so that the soap may he firmly held in the palm of one hand without slipping therefrom, such finger grips do not necessarily facilitate the pulling of the soap back and forth across the back of the user. of soap from a single loop of string which may be hung from the neck or other projection but the application of the soap to the back of the user is not facilitated thereby.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved bathing appliance.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a bathing appliance including a bar of soap provided with handle means for application of the soap to the less accessible parts of the body.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and the features of novelty which characterize the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.

Briefly stated, the invention relates to a bathing appliance comprising a bar of soap having a pair of oppositely disposed handle-forming string ropes extending from the bar of soap to facilitate drawing the bar of soap back and forth across the back of the user. In a particular embodiment, the bar of soap is provided with a pair of parallel, transversely spaced, longitudinally extending openings, and a substantially endless flexible handle-forming member having portions passing through the openings forms a pair of substantially similar handle-forming loops extending from opposite ends of the bar of soap of sufficient length to permit the user of the appliance to draw the soap back and forth across the back.

The nature of the invention will best be understood when described in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a bathing appliance according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a somewhat schematic view illustrating the use of the bathing appliance of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a broken away fragmentary view of the bath ing appliance of FIG. 1, drawn to a larger scale;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a bathing appliance of FIG. 1, taken along line 44 of FIG. 3, and assuming that FIG. 3 illustrates the entire appliance; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the bathing appli- Moreover, it is knownto suspenda bar or, cake ance of FIG. 1, taken alongline 55 of FIG. 4, and assuming that FIG. 4 shows the complete appliance.

Referring now to the drawings, there is illustrated a bathing appliance generally illustrated at It and including a bar or cake of soap 11 and a substantially endless flexible handle-forming member 12 of stranded string or rope having portions extending from opposite sides of the bar of soap 11 and forming oppositely disposed flexible handle-forming string loops 12a and 12b.

In order to form the handle-forming loops 12a and 12b, the handle-forming member 12 may comprise a stranded string or rope having its ends interwoven together. into a joint to form a continuous loop. The joint 12c if desired may be Wrapped with tape 13 or otherwise secured against separation.

bar of soap 11, the bar of soap is cast or formed around the interwoven joint 120 which with the tape 13 forms an enlarged portion on the string to secure the loop from pulling through the bar of soap. Additionally, an inter-' mediate portion 12d, half way between the ends of the handle-forming member 12, is embedded in the bar of soap so that the handle forming string loops 12a and 12b are substantially the same length. It will be seen that as assembled the bar of soap has two substantially parallel, transversely spaced, longitudinally extending openings 11a and 11b through which the handle-forming member 12 passes. It will be understood that since the soap 11 is formed or molded about the handle-forming member 12, the handle-forming member 12 tightly fits in the openings 11a and 11b. The enlarged joint 12c, enlarged with the tape 13, securely holds the bar 11 from accidental displacement from the string or handle-forming member 12. a

FIG. 2 illustrates the manner of use of the bathing appliance according to the present invention. The bath- .ing appliance 10 may readily be drawn back and forth across the back 15a of the user 15 by means of the handleforming loops 12a and 12b.

Although it is understood that the bathing appliance 10 may have various configurations and sizes, one bathing appliance 10 built in accordance with the present invention had an approximate overall length L, FIG. 1, of thirty-six inch-es utilizing a cotton stranded string or cord for the handle-forming member 12 approximately threeeighth of an inch in diameter. Moreover, the soap 11 was approximately 4 inches long, 2% inches wide, and 1 /2 inches deep. Moreover, although the soap 11 is herein illustrated as being of oblong shape, any suitable shape may be used.

Although the present invention has been described by reference to only a single embodiment thereof, it will be apparent that numerous other modifications andembodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art and it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such modifications and embodiments which will fall within the true ea extending openings, and a substantially endless, flexible, handle-forming member having portions passing through said openings to form a pair of substantially similar handle-forming loops extending from opposite ends of said bar of soap, said handle-forming member being formed 5 of a stranded cord having its ends interwoven into a slight- 1y enlarged joint to form a continuous member, said joint being embedded in said bar of soap in one of said openings and an intermediate portion of said handle-forming member being embedded in said bar of soap in the other 10 of said openings. 1

2. A bathing appliance as defined by claim 1 wherein the handle-forming member is about 3 feet in length.

' References-Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain June 21, 1928 

1. A BATHING APPLIANCE COMPRISING A BAR OF A SOAP HAVING A PAIR OF PARALLEL, TRANSVERSELY SPACED, LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING OPENINGS, AND A SUBSTANTIALLY ENDLESS, FLEXIBLE, HANDLE-FORMING MEMBER HAVING PORTIONS PASSING THROUGH SAID OPENINGS TO FORM A PAIR OF SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR HANDLE-FORMING THE LOOPS EXTENDING FROM OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAID BAR OF SOAP, SAID HANDLE-FORMING MEMBER BEING FORMED OF A STRANDED CORE HAVING ITS ENDS INTERWOVEN INTO A SLIGHTLY ENLARGED JOINT TO FORM A CONTINUOUS MEMBER, SAID JOINT BEING EMBEDDED IN SAID BAR OF SOAP IN ONE OF SAID OPENINGS AND AN INTERMEDIATE PORTION OF SAID HANDLE-FORMING MEMBER BEING EMBEDDED IN SAID BAR OF SOAP IN THE OTHER OF SAID OPENINGS. 